Mysterious reboots!! (Windows XP)

[Nickerz]

Evening all,

Just bought new mobo and processor (XP 2000+ & Abit AT7-MAX, and a couple extra sticks of DDR PC2700 ram [now 1 gig]), windows XP didn’t like it, so I formatted the drive and did a fresh install, which went swimmingly, all hardware installed properly, installed all the right drivers, and Via 4 in 1 drivers supplied with mobo.

All software installed ok, and it seemed to be running perfectly….

However it has started to reboot occasionally sometimes 3 or 4 times in a row, mainly when I have an explorer window open, either to browse the web or to browse folders, but nothing that is stressing the system. And it just shuts down, and restarts with no warning. And occasionally when it restarts it comes up with the annoying “windows has just recovered from a serious crash, do I want to sent an error report”. Its worth noting that it used to do it occasionally on my last set up with soltek mobo, and XP1700+.

So I am guessing here that it’s a windows problem, and or an explorer problem. Its not too much of a problem, although it hasn’t done it while I am in the middle of working yet, but it will become annoying if I start loosing work. And well its just not healthy when your PC is doing weird things like switching itself off, and having internal crashs under no stress…

Has anyone else had this problem with windows XP, might be able to shed some light. I am also running a Zalman flower on silent mode, so maybe its over heating!!

Cheers

Nick

[[GPO]Solitaire]

Hey there!

I'm just gonna moan about my PC which is having the same problem as yours! i got an Via chipset MoBo and a Nvidia Video card! my XP does not like the mobo and card combination! it causes it to reboot if display too much on screen at any one time! i.e. a window and a desktop :)

Have you got a Nvidia Graphics card? did the error report after a crash tell you what caused the crash? it should give you a dialog box asking to send an error report to M$! take aread at that that might give you a clue to the problem!

[Nickerz]

Most of the time there is no error report, it just restarts, and its all reset by the time it boots. I think the error reports are because somethings corrupted as soon as it starts.

I have a cheapy 32m graphics card, I couldn't afford a decent one when I built my beast, and as I don't use it for gaming, it wasn't a high priority. I can't even remember who its made by, I would have to dig about. Could that be the problem, that the card can't keep up?

[[GPO]Solitaire]

Sounds like it could be the Graphics card! try and read the txt file it's trying to send to M$ it will give you the exact file that's causing the problems! it's uausly held in C:\windows\logfiles\watchdog\*.wdl it's just a txt file but it gives you some info about the error and file's causing the problem!

here is my latest *.wdl file! this is what you should see:

//
// Watchdog Event Log File
//

LogType: Watchdog
Created: 2002-08-12 12:57:56
TimeZone: 0 - GMT Standard Time
WindowsVersion: XP
EventType: 0xEA - Thread Stuck in Device Driver

//
// The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This
// usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device
// driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your
// display device vendor for any driver updates.
//

ShutdownCount: 6
Shutdown: 0
EventCount: 8
BreakCount: 8
BugcheckTriggered: 1
DebuggerNotPresent: 1
DriverName: nv4_disp
EventFlag: 1
DeviceClass: Display
DeviceDescription: NVIDIA GeForce 256
HardwareID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0100&SUBSYS_502014AF&REV_10
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
DriverFixedFileInfo: FEEF04BD 00010000 0006000D 000A0C0A 0006000D 000A0C0A 0000003F 00000008 00040004 00000003 00000004 00000000 00000000
DriverCompanyName: NVIDIA Corporation
DriverFileDescription: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 30.82
DriverFileVersion: 6.13.10.3082
DriverInternalName: nv_disp.dll
DriverLegalCopyright: (c) NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
DriverOriginalFilename: nv_disp.dll
DriverProductName: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 30.82
DriverProductVersion: 6.13.10.3082

[Nickerz]

thats interesting!!

So a hardware conflict could actually cause windows to shut down then? Its not overheating or owt?

[[GPO]Solitaire]

If it finds a conflict in it's drivers or with a process it shuts down to protect itself! usually it just restarts without warning or you'll get a few seconds of freezing or a distorted screen then it will simplay restart!

another thing I've rarely had a Blue screen of death with XP and i've been using it for nearly 12 months and only ever had a handfull of BSoD's, it just restarts on me!

[Nickerz]

Yes you were spot on, was sis vga drivers, just realised I didnt' actually install the cards drivers let windows sort it out and forget, just isntalled them so hopefully that will be the end of it, but will upgrade to something decent in the next few months.

Had only one blue screen of death, and that was because there was hardware conflictions durint the instalation. Sorted it by removing all PCI devices, and isntalling them once I actually got XP on, and never had one once its actually running.

Appart from this problem with the graphics card, its been rock solid, most reliable OS I ever used! :)

Do you think that I need more than 32meg of cheap S**T :D

Nick

PS Thanks ;)

[[GPO]Solitaire]

yeh! splash out in one of the Nvidia GeForce4 cards! ;) give yourself a nice gift for fixing your own PC ;) lol!!

[Kynoch]

Restarts can also be caused by Overheating, usually it is just down to the Thermal Protection in the BIOS, which makes the computer reset if it hits a pre set temperature, so it might just be worth while checking in the BIOS to make sure that it is enabled, and if needed either disable it or make the reset temperature higher, eg 60C Max.
If this doesnt turn out to solve the problem at least you have eliminated this from the list of possiblities.

[scottie]

have a look in control panel > advanced > startup and recovery and find the switch that prevents auto reboots - then u might get a chance to see wot the prob is

[scottie]

oops sorry the prob is solved :rolleyes:

[Nickerz]

Originally posted by Kynoch:
<STRONG>Restarts can also be caused by Overheating, usually it is just down to the Thermal Protection in the BIOS, which makes the computer reset if it hits a pre set temperature, so it might just be worth while checking in the BIOS to make sure that it is enabled, and if needed either disable it or make the reset temperature higher, eg 60C Max.
If this doesnt turn out to solve the problem at least you have eliminated this from the list of possiblities.</STRONG>

Yes I have disabled reboots, and put it on warning, it will warn me if the CPU gets over 65.... :)

Thanks scottie: Seems to of solved it, but we'll see what happens...

What about gainward cards, I ahve to admit I don't really know anything about g/cards, no aactually know nothing :D

[Nickerz]

ah ohhhh, they've started again! :)

Error sig:
BCCode : a BCP1 : 00000004 BCP2 : 00000002 BCP3 : 00000000
BCP4 : 804F1ADA OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 0_0 Product : 256_1

Log:
C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini082802-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\NICKCL~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER3.tmp.dir00\ sysdata.xml

What in the heck does all that mean? :D

[IggyMF]

I've got same problem with Gigabyte 7iex4, Gforce pro and XP.

Seems to be related to eDonkey s/w

Symtoms...... PC reboots with the apreviously posted error message....when system restarts it states...Windows has recovered from a serious error blah blah

It also corrupted my profile and created a temp one. After removal of eDonkey2000 system is fine

It took me about 4 weeks of changing drivers, removing hardware and deinstalling software to reach this conclusion

Oh at one point got an error message relating to my bios being non acpi compliant (it is!!)

:mad:

[scottie]

try going to control panel>admin tools >event viewer then click system

look for the time that the error happened and click on the error - this hopefully will give you more details about wots going wrong. u can also click on a link from there you check the MS knowledge base.

failing that type the name of the error given in the event viewer into google, yahoo etc and see what comes up.

hope this helps :)

[scottie]

Or put the name of the error as seen in event viewer up in here and I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it!!!

nowt worse than an unstable puter!!!! :rolleyes:

[[GPO]Solitaire]

Scottie!
There is ONE thing worse than an unstable puter.
That's an unstable User :D :eek: :D lol

Anyhoo back to the error!
It should tell you at least what File is causing the problem, that should help unless it's Knrl386.exe! which is the PC's way of saying "Why as me! I'm just running the progs!"

[ 28 August 2002: Message edited by: [GPO]Solitaire ]

[scottie]

LOL :D I think a few of us fit the bill!!! :D

[Nickerz]

Most of the time it is to do with the graphics card. I have tried using windows generic controlers (which is worse). And installing the cards drivers (better but still reboots).

Thinking about buying me a nice new g/card, wanted one anyway! :)

Here is one of the logs:

Error code 0000000a, parameter1 00000004, parameter2 00000002, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 804f1ada.

Here is another:

The System Restore filter encountered the unexpected error '0xC000007F' while processing the file 'desktop.ini' on the volume 'HarddiskVolume3'. It has stopped monitoring the volume.

:-)

[G1ZmO]

An obvious one I know, but I note nobody has asked if your PSU is up to the task? If its under 300W you may well have a load of stability problems with AMDs

Just a thought.... :)

[Nickerz]

Got a £60 silent 300w PSU!

[FLiX]

I had a similar problem, it was kazaa going through my alcatel usb modem, no idea why, but having changed to an adsl router i havent had a crash since!

[The Pimp]

Originally posted by iggymf:
<STRONG>I've got same problem with Gigabyte 7iex4, Gforce pro and XP.

Seems to be related to eDonkey s/w

Symtoms...... PC reboots with the apreviously posted error message....when system restarts it states...Windows has recovered from a serious error blah blah

It also corrupted my profile and created a temp one. After removal of eDonkey2000 system is fine

It took me about 4 weeks of changing drivers, removing hardware and deinstalling software to reach this conclusion

Oh at one point got an error message relating to my bios being non acpi compliant (it is!!)

:mad:</STRONG>

I bet you are using Zone Alarm as well :) :) :) I had the same problem with ED2K BSOD'g (IRQL_Less_Or_Equal_To) when it went to complete a download. Discovered that if Zone Alarm was removed & replaced with another software Firewall, the problem ceased immediatly. Now using Norton's Internet Security & have had no problems since.

[IggyMF]

I wasnt using any software firewall (got a Cisco box)...but a friend of mine has just started getting the 'non acpi bios error' and guess what.....yip, hes just installed edonkey.....what that has got to do with bios I have no idea...heres the error (now no more as is edonkey)

Event Type: Error
Event Source: ACPI
Event Category: None
Event ID: 4
Date: 04/09/2002
Time: 20:14:49
User: N/A
Computer: THUNDERBIRD
Description:
AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address (0x71), which lies in the 0x70 - 0x71 protected address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 04 00 52 00 ......R.
0008: 00 00 00 00 04 00 05 c0 .......À
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........